The present invention relates generally to playing dice and more particularly to playing dice of the type having illuminated, numeric displays.
Random selection devices such as dice have been utilized in various amusement games and games of chance for an extended period of time. Originally, such dice were simply small, solid cubes having numbered facets. Typically, the various games of chance and entertainment in which dice found application relied upon the activity of rolling the dice across a surface and applying significance or importance to the number displayed on the upwardly facing facet of the cubes once they came to rest. While such solid dice continue to be utilized in numerous games of chance and entertainment devices to this day, the advent of electronic circuitry and illuminatable numeric displays for use in conjunction, therewith, has created the opportunity to produce more advanced types of dice. Such "electronic dice" add the additional entertainment and interest element of illuminatable, numeric display segments on the dice facets.
A number of such electronic playing dice have bee created by those skilled in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,304 sets forth an illuminated dice and storage housing combination in which a pair of playing dice are provided with light-emitting diodes on their interior surfaces, together with a battery and master switch within each die. A gravity-responsive switch within the die causes the battery to be coupled to the upward facing facet of the die thereby illuminating only the upwardly facing facet numeric display. A storage housing includes means for charging the internal batteries of each of the die during periods of non-use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,189 sets forth an electronically simulated die system in which an electronic circuit housed within an elongated playing device contains internal logic circuitry which simulates the rolling action of conventional non-electronic dice. Means are provided for simulating dice behavior characteristic of other device structures such as four-sided, eight-sided, twelve-sided, twenty-sided, or even one-hundred-sided dice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,881 sets forth illuminating means within a pair of multifaceted dice. Each of the facets bear an illuminatable, numeric display and each supports an internal illumination device which operates to illuminate the uppermost facet of the dice after having been rolled and coming to rest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,988 sets forth an electronic dice game in which an electronic circuit is supported within a housing having two sets of opto-electric display elements on the housing face to represent the spot sets of a conventional set of dice. The electronic circuit includes timing means which provide a random activity characteristic of the random rolling of conventional dice. In its intended use, the electronic dice of the '988 patent simulate the dice-playing activity by randomly generating combinations of illuminated spot elements on the single display facet.
U.S. Pat. 4,148,488 sets forth a random selection apparatus which comprises a sealed cube having six transparent surfaces surrounding a second smaller cube supported therein which includes the conventional six spot sets of a die. Each facet of the internal cube is maintained in alignment with a corresponding transparent window of the outer cube. An opaque liquid occupies the space between the side and bottom facets and windows of the two cubes, but not the upward facing facet and window. As a result, none of the faces of the inner cube are viewable through the windows of the outer cube except the upwardly facing facet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,650 sets forth a simulated dice game and control circuit therefor in which a playing board includes a plurality of display lamps arranged in a pattern corresponding to the spot patterns on two dice. The display lamps are activated by an electronic circuit which produces a random pattern of illumination on the lamps, and which thereby is utilized to simulate the action of a pair of rolling dice.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,881,892 sets forth a game apparatus in which a cube is provided with conventional dice spot patterns for the numbers two through six on the side and upper facets and which includes means for sequentially illuminating each of the spot patterns on the facets in a rapid, serial manner. The player attempts to activate a manually-operable breaking device which stops the movement of the facet illuminating selector. The object is to apply the breaking device with sufficient skill to select the illumination pattern desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,459,427 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,624 set forth similar early attempts to combine electronic circuitry with playing dice, and each includes a random pattern generator which randomly illuminates the spot patterns typical of playing dice in a manner intended to approximate the action of playing dice described above.
While the foregoing playing dice provide some level of amusement and interest, there remains a need in the art for an electronically operated playing die in which increased excitement is created by the interaction of the die rolling and the random number generation of the electronic circuit.